computerlover said:
I'm just wondering how this is even right. Posting someone's E-mail address and IP address shouldn't be allowed. I'm guessing mods have access to all our personal information and can get it at any time they wish. There is nothing in the terms and conditions page that says you have access to personal info. Posting someone's IP can help hackers get into their PC. So, if someone post spam your going to open a gateway so their computer can be hacked by people?
As far as the mods go,
There should be some restrictions on their mod powers. I think they should only be allowed to ban/unban people, delete post, and keep the forums running correctly. There is no need for them to know where I live or anything else. This isn't helping them with keeping CF running smoothly.
Posting someones IP address is standard scare-mongering tactics on forums throughout the world, since it points people directly to you... posting an email address is just as annoying because then people get emails from irrate members when they are banned, also there is a chance that the email will be picked up by spam spiders and addeed to a database... -as far as deterrents go, I think it's a pretty good one. -I mean you won't be doing anything wrong because you're now paranoid that if you do your IP/email will be posted and lots of bad things will happen...
Aside from that...
posting your IP address won't harm you, simply because you have a dynamic IP address, next time you turn off your computer it'll change, You've only made 4 posts up to now, and they have been from 2 different IP addresses...
You've got more chance of being hit by a worm that scans IP addresses methodically to make sure that no address is missed out.
It's not just the mods that post IP/email details David does as well. in fact he does that more than the rest of us, so restricting what the mods can do isn't really of any help. this problem (if you see it as a problem) will still be there.
You can't get any personal details from the IP address, besides a vague area of residence, and even that is non-confrmed -I mean we are talking regions like what country you are in, or what state, not what town. street or house number, only your ISP has access to that kind of information, -Which is why the RIAA have to petition for ISPs to hand over details once they've found out people sharing files... -There we are talking about a big industry, Even the police and FBI etc need to petition the ISP to find users location details, we are talking top level agencies there, certainly you shouldn't be worrying about some script kiddies!
So posting the IP address (far from opening the gateway to hackers) actually does no harm at all!!!
Mods need access to IP addresses.... there was a member who was banned a while back who kept comming back and opening new account specifically to fight with other members and try to ruin this place (Ironically enough they shared the same ISP as you!)... the mods needed access to the IP details so that they could Identify this person each time they came back and take some swift action to boot him back out again.
You say that there is nothing in the terms and conditions that says we have access to the IP address... well...
I'll point you in the direction of the rules
http://www.computerforums.org/rules.html
Your personal information is not shared with any other companies/indviduals.
This statement alone implies that personal information is collected...
And before you say that posting the rules is breaking a contract with a member...
That contract is confirmed by both the members when they post and the forums as they post. If the members break the rules they have broken that contract and there is no obligation, (leagal or moral) for the forum and it's staff to stand by their commitments after the member has broken their commitments.
So You see.
Posting and IP does no harm,
we need to see and IP address to help this place run smoothly
it is announced that details are harvested, (if by nothing else then by the little button that says IP logged under each post!).
Whilst hackers can use the IP address there is a good chance that most people addresses would have changed if they are dynamic, secondly, a hacker can (and will) happen accross vulnerable PCs anyway, (your best chance is to keep up to date on patches)
and It is in the rules and it is promised that your information will never be shared, the only way this will ever happen is if you decide to break your contract with the forum...
If you don't go wrong, we can't go wrong either...
